* Cf. F. Naumann, Briefe iiber Religimfi, Berlin, 1910, p. .'iSf., and C. Hargrove, 'The Warlike Context of the Gospels,' in HJ xiv. (1916) 366-379.
t The true meaning of a passage like Mt 1034 was explained in the Clementine Recognitions, ii. 26-31, as Mic 7*^ was in
well expressed in this beautiful description from the 2nd cent. Epistle to Diognetus (7) : ' Was He [Christ] sent, as one might suppose, to set up a sovereign rule, to make men fear and shudder ? By no means. He sent Him in gentleness and meekness,* as a king might send his royal .son ; He sent Him as God, sent Him as a man to men, sent Him to save, to use not force but persuasion — for force is no attribute of God (jiia yap ov Tp6<re<rTi nf Oeip). He sent Him to summon, not to persecute ; sent Him to love, not to judge.' There is a slight flavour of sentimeiitalism in these words, but, so far as they go, they are adequate and accurate. It is the Fourth Evangelist who says that Jesus set Himself to win the heart of the world ('he that hath the bride is the bridegroom '), but the truth that Jesus came to reign by other powers than those of the sword is written over all the Gospels.
It is in the Lucan writings, not only in Acts (cf. S. Buss, Roman Law and History in the NT, London, 1901, p. 322 f.) but in the third gospel as compared witli ilark and ilatthew, that the most numerous references to war and the army are to be met. Luke, e.g., not only omits the disarming rebuke of Jesus in Gethsemane (.Mt 26^2j^ but (i.) preserves the tradition that John the Baptist, instead of ordering the soldiers t who consulted him to leave the army, merely told them that it was their duty to abstain from what was called concussio, or the ill-treatment of civilians, i.e. from extorting nionej' by violence J and making false charges ; they were also to be content with their pay (Lk 3^^). "The negative part of the counsel {lirj&eva BiatTii(n^Te |LLj)5e (rvK0(/iavrv(7i]Tt) is not quite clear. The ' violence ' may- mean overbearing poor civilians, and soldiers had many op- portunities of taking such unfair advantage, not only in war but in the police-duties \\hich they discharged during a peace. If extorting money by threats is not covered by Stao-et'o-jjTe, it is einbriiced by <rvKoi^avTriaryre, which also could connote rough treatment, as is plain from the Passio .S. Perpetvce (iii.). where the haptesB martyrs are exposed not only to privations in gaol but to hard usage from their guard of soldiers {tnpa.TnajCiv (TuKocfiavTiai? TrAeiVrais)- The soldiers bullied the prisoners, in order to get money from them for certain privileges and slight relaxations of the prison regime. The general sense of John's advice is therefore plain, and the point is that, if John the Baptist was not a Theudas, he was not a ' pacifist.' Further- more, among the special parables, or rather illustr.ations, of St. Luke's gospel, we find (ii.) the only § military one (14^1-3'-) which Jesus is recorded to have spoken. It is an illustration of fore- thought and deliberation. * What king sets out to fight against another king without first sitting down to deliberate wiiether with ten thousand men he can encounter the king who is attack- ing him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, when the other is still at a distance, he will send an embassy to do homage to him.' The prudent action of Toi, King of Hamath, as told in the L.XX text of 2 S 89f- (cf. H. St. John Thackeray, in JTIiSt xiv. (1913J 389-399), is an OT illustration, if not a source, of tlie parable. But this analogy is as old as Socrates. When Glaukon asked him how it was possible to enrich a State at the expense of its enemies, he replied that it was quite possible if the State first made sure that it was stronger; otherwise, it would run the risk of losing what it already possessed. 'Consequently, when one will consider with whom he may fight, he must find out his own State's strength and the strength of his opponents, 60 that, if the force of his State be superior, he may counsel aggressive measures, whereas, if it be inferior to its opponents, he may advise caution ' (Xen. Mem. iii. 6. 8; and again in iv. 2. 29). A third item (iii.) in St. Luke's contribution to the martial aspect of the gospel-story is the detailed reference to the siege-operations of the Roman army when it invested Jerusalem in the war of a.d. 67-70 (1939-44, ' a time is coming for 3'ou when your enemies will throw up ramparts round you and encircle you and besiege you on every side and raze you and 3'our children within you to the ground, leaving not one stone
Sanhedrin, 97a : the sword which Jesus brought is the symbol of division in families and households caused by one believing and others refusing to believe.
• Cf- 2 Co 101 (^Sta Tijs irpaijTTjTOs Ka\ £7rieiKeia5 rov XptffTov).
+ Auxiliary troops of Rome or mercenary soldiers of Herod, not necessarily of Jewish birth (cf. G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, London, 1907, i. 348 f.).
t For the general ' Prussian * attitude of Roman soldiers to civilians, Juvenal's 16th satire is an accessible piece of evidence ; but officers were also held responsible for the conduct of their men (cf. Vopiscus, Vita Aureliani, 7: * Si vis tribunus esse, immo si vis vivere, manus militum contine . . annona sua con- tentus sit. De praeda hostis non de lacrirais provincialium habeat '). For a specific case of military extortion in A.n. 37, in some Egyptian village, see Grenfell and Hunt, Oxyrhynchtm Papyri, ii. [1899] 184. This browbeating or blackmailing is the point of the allusion in Sir 36-" (26) : ' Who trusts an armed band that roams from city to city ? '